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Happiness means

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Real happiness means it will never end, and you will never feel satiation, that "I no more want." That is real happiness. Material happiness, there is no such thing.
Lecture on BG 1.44 -- London, July 31, 1973:

Unfortunately, everyone is killing for his sense gratification in the name of religion. In the name of religion, although it is prohibited, still they are killing. Just imagine how much sinful activities they are doing. And how they can be happy? Happiness, of course, a hog also thinks that he is very happy that he is eating stool, living in filthy place, and because he has got the facility of sex life without any discrimination he may think happy life, but that is not happiness. Happiness is different thing. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). If you want to feel happiness by your these blunt material senses, that is not happiness. Happiness is beyond your material senses. Ātyantikam. That is real happiness. Real happiness means it will never end, and you will never feel satiation, that "I no more want." That is real happiness. Material happiness, there is no such thing. That you will feel immediately satiation. After enjoying any material happiness a few minutes, you will feel "Again another, again another, again another." So therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tat (BG 6.21). So real, what is real happiness, that is not felt by these blunt material senses.

Here happiness means sense gratification. Actually this is not happiness. Real happiness is described in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Lecture on BG 2.8 -- London, August 8, 1973:

So that is the actual position. Na hi prapaśyāmi mamāpanudyād. Therefore he has approached Kṛṣṇa: śiṣyas te 'ham (BG 2.7). "I, now I become your śiṣya." "Why you have come to Me?" "Because I know nobody else can save me from this dangerous position." This is real sense. Yac chokam ucchoṣaṇam indriyāṇām (BG 2.8). Ucchoṣaṇam. When we are put into great difficulties, it dries up the existence of the senses. No sense enjoyment also can make us happy. Ucchoṣaṇam indriyānām. Here happiness means sense gratification. Here... Actually this is not happiness. Real happiness is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: atīndriyam, sukham atyantīkaṁ yat tat atīndriyam (BG 6.21). Real happiness, atyantikam, the supreme happiness, is not enjoyed by the senses. Atīndriya, surpassing, transcendental to the senses. That is real happiness. But we have taken happiness as sense enjoyment. So by sense enjoyment, nobody can become happy. Because we are in the material existence.

Material happiness cannot give us happiness. Happiness, when we actually come to Kṛṣṇa and love Him. Happiness means also love. Either you love your family or your country or your society or your wife, your children, by loving there is happiness.
Lecture on BG 9.34 -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Because we want material happiness, therefore there is difficulty. So, material happiness, you have got experience, it cannot give us satisfaction. The big, big countries, America, in Europe, and so many, they have advanced in material happiness, but actually they are not happy. Material happiness cannot give us happiness. Happiness, when we actually come to Kṛṣṇa and love Him... Happiness means also love. Either you love your family or your country or your society or your wife, your children, by loving there is happiness. But this loving process is not giving us happiness. We are becoming frustrated. Therefore the real lovable object being Kṛṣṇa, if we make progress to that point, then we shall be happy. This is the point. Mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.65). So if this is concluded, then where is difficulty to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness? That is my point. Now it is concluded that if we come to Kṛṣṇa and love Him, then that is the highest perfection of our life.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

First of all our conception is happiness means happiness of my body. Material world means everyone is working hard only for the happiness of the body. And some of them, they are trying to be happy by the happiness of the mind.
Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:

Every living entity must hanker after happiness. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Because by nature we are happy. By nature we are happy. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt. So as spirit soul we are naturally happy, blissful. But because we have been covered by the eight material elements—earth, water, fire, air, ether. These are gross elements. And within the gross elements—mind, intelligence and ego. So somebody is satisfied with the comfort of the outward gross elements, this body. They are called materialists. Simply sense gratification. Indriyāni parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42). First of all our conception is happiness means happiness of my body. The whole world is going on. Material world means everyone is working hard only for the happiness of the body. And some of them, they are trying to be happy by the happiness of the mind. Just like arts, poetry, philosophy, speculating on. But both of these kinds of happiness will not give us real happiness. Because real happiness belongs to the soul. Basic principle of happiness missing.

Real happiness means when we come to the platform to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa's activities.
Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1976:

Therefore it is said, tapasya, tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). That is divyam. Kṛṣṇa has explained, janma karma ca me divyam (BG 4.9). That means activities, transcendental activities. Not that Kṛṣṇa is a zero, full stop. No. Actual activities begins when there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. These activities, they're my activities temporarily. They will not give us real happiness. Real happiness means when we come to the platform to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa's activities. Tapo divyam putrakā yena (SB 5.5.1). Then we will get eternal happiness. That is recommended here. Brahma-sukha does not mean that, as ordinarily they think, that to become brahma-lin or merge into the existence of Brahman, no.

Here happiness means to counteract the force of distress is called happiness. Actually there is no happiness. This is called māyā.
Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1970:

We understand that we are trying to be happy. Actually, this material world, there is no happiness, but to counteract the agency of distress, we accept, "That is happiness. That is happiness." Just like I have no apartment, but to counteract this inconvenience, if I try my utmost to get a good apartment I feel, "Oh, now I am happy. I am happy." What is this happiness? How long you shall remain in this apartment? Suppose you have got, purchased, now long you will live? So here happiness means to counteract the force of distress is called happiness. Actually there is no happiness. This is called māyā. Just like I am in distressed condition, puzzled, I take some intoxication. This is called happiness. I remain in the same condition. After my intoxication is over, I come back again into the same condition, but I am thinking (I am) happy. This is called māyā. Māyā means... Ma means "not," yā means "this." "You are thinking like this, but it is not this." This is called māyā. You are thinking that you are happy, but you are not happy.

Material way, we are trying to get happiness, that means sense gratification. That is not happiness. Happiness means spiritual happiness.
Lecture on SB 6.1.49 -- Detroit, June 15, 1976:

Why one is trying to get money? Because he thinks that "If I get money, then the distressed condition in which I am suffering, it can be mitigated." So the struggle for existence is going on. Everyone is trying to become happy. But that is not in the material way. Material way, we are trying to get happiness, that means sense gratification. That is not happiness. Happiness means spiritual happiness. That is happiness. This material happiness is temporary. That is not happiness, but perverted happiness. It is exemplified just like we are trying to find out water in the desert. Actually in the desert there is no water, but an animal, he sees that there is water in the desert, as we also see. But we are human being. We know in the desert there is no water, it is a reflection of the sunshine. But animal does not know. He's thirsty, he looks after the water in the desert. So this is the distinction between animal and human life.

Happiness means sense gratification. That is not happiness. Beyond these material senses, transcendental, there is another happiness.
Lecture on SB 7.6.6 -- New Vrindaban, June 22, 1976:

We are searching after happiness, but in the material world you cannot have happiness. That is a fact. Whatever little happiness you get, that is also distress. One has to attain to that stage of happiness with(out) distress. So that is a long history; everyone knows that happiness is not possible. But we arrange to get so-called... Happiness means sense gratification. That is not happiness. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad ātindriya grāhyam (BG 6.21). Directly sense perception is not happiness. These things are in the Bhagavad-gītā, you will find: sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriyaṁ grāhyam. Ātindriyam means beyond these material senses, transcendental, there is another happiness. That is transcendental bliss. That we perceive little bit while we are chanting. By chanting, chanting, chanting, when you'll be purified, then you will have the opportunity of tasting that transcendental bliss. Otherwise, the so-called happiness derived from the senses, that is not happiness.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

Brahman happiness means that there must be a distinction. The distinction means Kṛṣṇa is predominator and everyone is predominated.
The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 9, 1972:

Every chance of falling down from the spiritual happiness. That spiritual happiness, nirbheda-brahmānu-sandhana. Nirbheda, without any distinction. That is not real Brahman happiness. Brahman happiness means that there must be a distinction. The distinction means Kṛṣṇa is predominator and everyone is predominated. Just like the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa is the predominator, and the gopīs and all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana-Nanda Mahārāja, Yaśodā and the cowherd boys, servant, trees, plants, flowers, water, animals, cows—everyone is predominated. Kṛṣṇa is only predominator. That is real happiness. Whenever there is any trouble in Vṛndāvana, they approach the predominator and immediately the predominator takes care and they're happy. This is Vṛndāvana life.

General Lectures

This platform is called sensual platform because so long we have bodily conception of life, we think happiness means sense gratification. Happiness means sense gratification because body means senses.
Northeastern University Lecture -- Boston, April 30, 1969:

So far our living condition is concerned, we are in different platforms. So we have to first of all stand on the transcendental platform. Then there is question of transcendental meditation. In the Bhagavad-gītā, in the Third Chapter, you'll find that we have got different status of conditional life. The first is indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur... (BG 3.42). Sanskrit, indriyāṇi. First thing is bodily conception of life. Every one of us in this material world, we are under this bodily concept of life. I am thinking Indian, "I am Indian." You are thinking you are American. Somebody's thinking, "I am Russian." Somebody's thinking, "I am somebody else." So everyone is thinking that "I am this body." This is one standard, or one platform. This platform is called sensual platform because so long we have bodily conception of life, we think happiness means sense gratification. That's all. Happiness means sense gratification because body means senses. So indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42). Lord Kṛṣṇa says that in the material concept of life, or bodily concept of life, our senses are very prominent. That is going on at the present moment. Not at the present moment; since the creation of this material world. That is the disease, that "I am this body."

Happiness means unlimited, unrestricted happiness, without any condition.
Lecture -- London, September 16, 1969:

The yogis, they are also after happiness for satisfaction. Not only the materialists, but the yogis, the bhaktas, the jñānīs, they are also for happiness, brahma-saukhyam. But they want unlimited, unrestricted happiness, not this flickering happiness. That is their aim. Rāmante yoginaḥ anante. Those who are yogis, bhakta-yogī, jñāna-yogī or haṭha-yogī, everyone is trying to reach that platform. So why? For unlimited happiness. Ramante yogino 'nante satyānande. And that is real happiness. Happiness means unlimited, unrestricted happiness, without any condition. That is real happiness. If there is restriction, if there is condition... Just like here, if I go to a restaurant, the condition is you first of all pay, then you enjoy something. So similarly, if I have to enjoy a nice apartment, a nice house, first of all pay so many dollars, so many pounds, and then enjoy.

Philosophy Discussions

Happiness means satisfying the senses. But the actual sense gratification, the greatest sense gratification is to be derived by your transcendental senses, not these gross senses.
Philosophy Discussion on Jeremy Bentham:

Prabhupāda: Yes, greater happiness. So that greatest happiness can be perceived by transcenden... Happiness means satisfying the senses. Real... Happiness means satisfying the senses. So sense gratification. But the actual sense gratification, the greatest sense gratification is to be derived by your transcendental senses, not these gross senses. Sometimes these gross senses... Take for example rasagullā. You are eating but after eating four, five or ten you'll feel, "No more." That is not ātyantikam happiness. Happiness means you are enjoying something, you increase more and more and more enjoy, more enjoy, more enjoy, more enjoy. That is happiness. So whether this man knows what is happiness, that is the... He does not know what is happiness. He thinks in terms of sense gratification.

Physical senses cannot actually cannot give you the greatest happiness. A man can enjoy one woman, two women, but he cannot enjoy unlimitedly. But our standard of happiness means "which is increasingly unlimited."
Philosophy Discussion on Jeremy Bentham:

Prabhupāda: But physical senses cannot actually cannot give you the greatest happiness. Just like a man is sensuous. So he can enjoy one woman, two women, but he cannot enjoy unlimitedly. But our standard of happiness means "which is increasingly unlimited." That is happiness. Therefore it is said, ramante yogino 'nante satyānande cid-ātmani. Those who are yogis, they enjoy. So enjoyment... Without enjoyment, nothing is relished. Just like you are taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is some enjoyment, transcendental bliss. Otherwise how you can stick to it? So real happiness means "which is increasingly unlimited." That is happiness. Temporary happiness... Vidyāpati sings, tātala saikate vāri-bindu-sama suta-mita-ramaṇī-samāje, that we are trying to enjoy in this material world, happiness in the society, friendship and love.

Happiness means, which is eternally possible. And we are trying to give people that happiness which will never be exhausted.
Philosophy Discussion on Jeremy Bentham:

Prabhupāda: If hog would have been satisfied then he would have remained in one place, but he's searching after happiness whole day and night. Whole day and night. Nobody can be satisfied possessing a material body. That is not possible. (indistinct) Suppose you have made some arrangement according to your (indistinct), "Now I shall enjoy." But you will not be allowed to enjoy. Death will take away. You are thinking that "Now I will be happy." All right, to your standard it is happiness, but death will come, "No, please get out." Sukhena lagiya (Bengali). You construct a very nice house and next day it was set fire and finished. So you have made arrangement for fire brigade always running on the street. That is means you want to enjoy happiness without any disturbance. So happiness means, which is eternally possible. That is happiness. And we are trying to give people that happiness which will never be exhausted. That is our objective of happiness.

What is happiness, that is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Happiness means absence of distress.
Philosophy Discussion on Jeremy Bentham:

Prabhupāda: What is happiness, that is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Happiness means absence of distress. That is happiness. So Bhagavad-gītā recommends that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You may think that you are very happy but this is not happiness. You have to see to your distressed condition because you have to take birth, you have to die, you have to suffer diseases and you have to suffer, janma-mṛtyu-jarā, old age. So where is your happiness. If the distresses are present, then where is your happiness? This is another ignorance. This is a... Nobody wants to die but death is there. Then where is your happiness? Nobody wants to become old but the old age is there. You must become old. Then where is your happiness? Nobody wants diseases but disease is there. You cannot avoid it. Then where is your happiness? This is less intelligence. That actually you are not in happiness but by your so-called philosophizing theories, you are trying to be happy, means another illusion and we take it as happiness. Actually it is not happiness.

Happiness, means he has no more anything to hanker. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varam: "I don't want any material benediction."
Philosophy Discussion on Socrates:

Prabhupāda: If one is self-realized, he is immediately happy, prasannātmā, jolly, because immediately he is on the right. Just like one is going on under some mistaken ideas, and when he comes to the real idea, he becomes very happy: "Oh, so long I was going on such a mistaken idea." So immediately the result will be happiness: "How foolish I was. I was doing like this, doing like that." So right..., as soon as one comes to the right position, he, the symptom is he is prasannātmā. What is that prasannātmā? Na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). Prasannātmā, happiness, means he has no more anything to hanker. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varam: "I don't want any material benediction." Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "My Lord, don't tell You want me for any material benefit. I have seen so much afflict. My father was so big materialistic that even the demigods, they were afraid of him. You have finished it within a second. So I am not after these things." So this is real knowledge, that na śocati na kāṅkṣati, he has no more hankering.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Foolish persons, they think, "If I get some gold, then I'll be happy." Nothing material will make you happy. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, real happiness means to approach Him.
Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Therefore one should be inquisitiveness that "I want to be happy. I am arranging for my happiness with so many material paraphernalia, but still I am not happy." This inquiry should be there. That is called jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam. And that is brahma-jijñāsā. So brahma-jijñāsā is not for everyone. Brahma-jijñāsā. And for brahma-jijñāsā one should make a guru, not for any material welfare. If I get some money, if some guru gives me some money, some gold, I think he is Bhagavān. Because I am attached to this gold and material things. That is not śreyas. But people like that. If somebody by miracles give you some money, some gold, they think, "Oh, here is God. Here is God, here is God." But that is not śreyas. And if gold is the standard of happiness, then... There are many persons, Birlas and others, they possess huge stock of gold. Does it mean that they will not die? They will not suffer from disease? But foolish persons, they think, "If I get some gold, then I'll be happy." And that is foolishness. Nothing material will make you happy. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, real happiness means to approach Him.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Happiness means: "He does not lament, neither he desires." Our present disease is we hanker after things which we do not possess, and when that thing is lost, we lament. When one is cleansed in the heart, he has no more hankering or desire.
Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: This treatment is in the beginning just cleansing the mirror of the heart. That is the treatment. Just like a mirror, when it is overcast with dust, it requires cleansing. So the mental mirror is covered with material dust. So it has to be cleansed. That is the treatment. And when it is cleansed, you can see your real face in the mirror. Similarly, as soon as our heart disease, contaminated by the modes of material nature, is cleansed, you can understand what is your real position. That is the success of psychiatric treatment. One comes to know, "What I am." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul; I am not this body." That is called brahma-bhūtaḥ stage. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). He becomes immediately happy. And happiness means na śocati na kāṅkṣati: "He does not lament, neither he desires." Our present disease is we hanker after things which we do not possess, and when that thing is lost, we lament. So hankering and lamenting. So when one is cleansed in the heart, he has no more hankering or desire. This is the symptom.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Happiness means spiritual happiness. That they do not know. Therefore I began my words that so long one is after material happiness he remains as an animal.
Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Indian man: So happiness lies above the senses. Above our indriyas.

Prabhupāda: Ha. Happiness means spiritual happiness. That they do not know. Therefore I began my words that so long one is after material happiness he remains as an animal. Because the animal cannot derive spiritual happiness. They do not know. The man can know. Just like this boy, he's coming from very high family in America but he's now happy in this way, by taking sannyāsa, giving up everything, living very plain. He has got money he had got beautiful wife, he had got beautiful home, everything. But he has given up. Not his example. In our country there were many many big, big kings, rājarṣis. Just like Bharata Mahārāja. He was emperor of the whole world. He gave up everything at the age of 24 years, young wife, young children. There are many examples. So actually, we have lost our Vedic culture, the objective, and therefore we are suffering.

Page Title:Happiness means
Compiler:Laksmipriya, Matea, MadhuGopaldas
Created:30 of Nov, 2008
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=16, Con=3, Let=0
No. of Quotes:19